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Government schools in the western suburbs are the victim of their own success. The outstanding performance of both Shenton College and Churchlands Senior High School has seen enrolments grow to well beyond what was expected.

Concerned parents will be relieved to know that the State Government will build a new secondary school at City Beach and expand facilities at both Shenton College and Churchlands.

$60 million dollars will be allocated for Stage 1 of a new school on the Kalinda Drive site, opening for 250 Year 7 students in 2020 and expanding to cater for 1600 students to Year 12 by 2025.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being the Member for Cottesloe is the opportunity it provides for me to get out and visit the many schools, both primary and secondary, that are spread across the Electorate.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting Mosman Park Primary School to see the site for the new Nature Play Space and to congratulate the school on receiving a $20,000 grant from the State Government.

The school community has done a great deal of work in fundraising and design, and the grant was the final amount needed to make it all possible.
Nature based playgrounds are wonderful for children, bringing back a sense of adventure, while at the same time developing positive attitudes to physical fitness and health.

Over the years I have attended end of year graduation ceremonies, awards nights, flag presentations and numerous other special events at schools.
All primary schools across the electorate have now received a free-standing jarrah flag stand, made by the Mosman Park Men’s Shed, along with a national and state flag. The last of these was presented to St Thomas’ Primary School in July.

The population of Perth is forecast to grow from 1.9 million to 3.5 million by 2050. This will place pressure on our transport system for both people and goods.

For the western suburbs, the movement of trucks in and out of Fremantle Port has become a critical issue. Trade through the port has grown by 70% in the past 10 years with the number of containers now at 720,000 a year.

Congestion and road safety are already serious problems in North Fremantle and along Port Beach Road and Curtin Avenue with trucks making up 30% of the 300,000 vehicles per day on those roads.

Doing nothing is not an option. The Roe 8 Highway extension in the southern suburbs, from the Freeway west through to Stock Rd, will take 5,000 trucks per day off existing suburban roads and also provide safer access to the Fiona Stanley Hospital precinct.

I fully appreciate that this project is environmentally sensitive, going as it does between lakes in the Beelier Wetlands. That is why both the State and Commonwealth environmental approvals laid down strict conditions around the design and construction of the road, including the part bridging of the road.
It has been suggested that an alternative is to build a new container port in Cockburn Sound. While this will have its own significant environmental issues, what is overlooked is that Roe 8 will be needed for both the existing port and any future port in Cockburn Sound.

An outer harbour will happen, but it is a massive project that is at least 15 years away and will initially be an overflow facility operating in tandem with the existing harbour in Fremantle.

For the western suburbs, a ‘do nothing’ approach to Roe 8 will inevitably mean more trucks avoiding the log-jam to the south by diverting to a northern route along Port Beach Road and Curtin Avenue.

The other proposed alternative is to use rail. This sounds attractive but it has limitations. At present 14% of containers go by rail, the highest rate of any Australian port. World’s best practice is 30%, which still leaves 70% of a growing number of containers going by truck.

Managing freight into Fremantle Port is an important and complex issue. There is no easy short term fix. Building Roe 8 is a necessary step.